I’m the happiest guy alive, so I should be being the proud recipient of a very powerful Yonex Voltric Z-Force badminton racquet. Following this earlier post I received the highly anticipated package from SunriseClick on August 31, 2013. For a very long time the Yonex Ti 7 has been my primary and faithful racquet at my weekly singles and doubles game — with plenty of battle scars to show for it too. Having spent the last two weeks acclimatizing to the Z-Force, and getting fantastic results from it enough to relegate the Ti 7 to backup duties. When I am not taking pictures for a living, I’m working out my camera arm with one of the most potent badminton racquets on the planet. #DominateTheGame
“The perks of dominating the game. We’re glad you’re loving the Voltric Z-Force, Jan! “
The Sunrise holographic sticker indicates a product is genuine.The Voltric Z-Force unboxed. Racket arrived pre-strung with BG65 strings. I had it replaced with high repulsion 0.65mm BG66 Ultimax strung to 22/23 lbs.“Combining incredible power and fast racquet handling for the first time, VOLTRIC is the perfect racquet for players seeking exceptional ‘all-round’ performance. VOLTRIC’s exclusive TRI-VOLTAGE SYSTEM achieves the combination of heavy smashes and speedy racquet handling.”“Stiffer frame with head-heavy balance for an exceptionally powerful swing.”“NANOPREME™ is a new level in ‘Nano-technology’, operating on a scale of less than one billionth of a metre by using an epoxy resin to bind graphite fibres together. NANOPREME™ overcomes the limited qualities of carbon technology to provide stiffness, high resilience and high repulsion from a single racquet material for the very first time.”I was offered a choice of racquet weights and grip sizes to choose from and I chose the lightest one (4U) with the smallest grip (G5) — perfect combination for my style of play.Racquet getting strung with high repulsion 0.65mm Yonex BG66 Ultimax strings
Update(24-08-2013): Delighted to announce that SunriseClick liked my photo submission so much they’re sending me Yonex’s most incredible weapon — the Voltric Z-Force, a racket current BWF world number one (22-08-13) singles player Dato Lee Chong Wei uses to dominate his game! I find it interestingly coincident that the black/lime green colour scheme matches my black/lime green Yonex top very well — the folks at Sunrise has great taste 🙂
As a professional photographer I’m completely at ease behind the camera, as do most of my peers as far as I know. On occasions when the roles reverse I can get pretty uncomfortable posing to have pictures taken. That’s probably why you don’t see great many ‘selfies’ from me or even pictures with my wife (the irony of my chosen profession). This recent couple photo is quite rare, taken at the spur of the moment just before my wife left for an overseas trip.
On the day my associate and I got together over a long festive holiday weekend, we dragged bags of camera gear which included some light stands, half a dozen Canon Speedlites along with off-camera triggers and so forth. I brought my share of equipment but they ended up staying in the bag since my colleagues Cyril and Gavin were doing a fine job of making me model for one jump shot after another … had a really good workout. This is one time I actually didn’t mind performing in front of the camera — doing what I love most —badminton. This photo is featured on SunriseClick Facebook Page.
About the only time I’m completely at ease in front of the camera modeling for this jump shot.
Back in 2009 when I wrote I Jump. Do You? in an effort to demonstrate my newly acquired 5D Mark II’s ISO 6400 performance and AI Servo tracking capability, some readers suggested that the test was flawed. That was then, this is now. III years on (pun intended) and again I find myself holding a 5D Mark III at the same sports hall where I conducted the 2009 test and I’ll let you be the judge of this test: EF 70-200mm f/2.8, @ ISO 12800, 1/500 sec, Auto White Balance.
Of course, I know that 600 pixel wide images do not mean anything until you see one of reasonably large size to pixel peep. For that, I include an unedited RAW converted JPEG image (1.4 MB) that I think is good enough to show you just how clean ISO 12800 is (remember, though the venue is a dedicated badminton court its lights are rows of fluorescent lights not spot lights that you’re probably used to seeing at world class tournaments). Many thanks to Cyril who took charge of the 5D Mark III while I was getting an intense workout!
Click on image to see a larger version (1000px) of an unedited RAW-to-JPEG file (1.4 MB)
This 620 pixel wide image is post-processed for contrast and colour like I always do. The EXIF files show ISO 12800, 1/500 sec, Auto White Balance. If you’re a seasoned photographer these numbers tell you a lot.
On another occasion, I took the unusual step of fitting a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens to the 5D Mark III to shoot badminton because where I was allowed to sit during the tournament, that focal length made the most sense. Read more in my other post EOS 5D Mark III + EF 50mm f/1.4 at ISO 12800 for Sports Photography?
Chung Hua Middle School KB contestant Edward reaching for the shuttlecock captured using EF 50mm f/1.4 at ISO 12800 f/2.5 1/1250 sec.
SHIMWORLD 